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The Population of Geoton 



AT DIFFERENT TIMES, 



WITH SOME NOTES ON THE PROVINCIAL 

CENSUS OF 1765. 



A Paper read before the Massachusetts Historical Society, on 
May 10, 1888, and now Reprinted from the Proceedings. 



By 8AMUP:L ABBOTT GREEN, M.D. 



CAMBRIDGE: 
JOHN WILSON AND SON. 

mnitersttg ^vess, 
1888. 



The Population of Groton 



AT DIFFERENT TIMES, 



WITH SOME NOTES ON THE PROVINCIAL 
CENSUS OF 1765. 



A Paper read before the Massachtjsetts Historical Society, on 
Mat 10, 1888, and now Reprinted from the Proceedings. 



By SAMUEL ABBOTT GREEN, M.D. 



CAMBRIDGE: 
JOHN WILSON AND SON. 

SHnibtrsttg ^rtss. 
1888. 



THE POPULATION OF GROTON AT 
DIFFERENT TIMES, 

WITH SOME NOTES ON THE PROVINCIAL CENSUS OF 1765. 



The town of Groton was formerly a much more important 
place relatively, both in size and influence, than it is at the 
present time. According to the census of 1790, it was then 
the second town in Middlesex County, Cambridge alone having 
a larger population. At that time Groton had 322 families, 
numbering 1,840 persons ; and Cambridge, 355 families, num- 
bering 2,115 persons. Charlestown had a population of 1,583 ; 
and Newton, 1,360. Reading, with 311 families (19 more 
than Groton), numbered 1,802 persons (38 less than Groton). 
Woburn then had a population of 1,727 ; Framingham, 1,598 ; 
Marlborough, 1,554 ; and Waltham, 882. Pepperell contained 
1,132 inhabitants ; Shirley, 677 ; Westford, 1,229 ; and Little- 
ton, 854. 

There were at that time in Middlesex County 41 towns, 
which number has since been increased to 48 towns and 
6 cities ; and in the mean while Brighton and Charlestown 
have been merged in the municipality of Boston, and thus 
have lost their separate existence. Major Aai'on Brown, of 
Groton, and General Henry Woods, of Pepperell, were the 
marshals who took the census of the county, with the excep- 
tion of that small portion lying on the farther side of the 
Merrimack River. 

The town of Groton was incorporated on May 25, 1655 ; 
and its territory originally comprised 64 square miles, which 



was considerably increased by the liberal measurement so 
common in those days. In a report made on May 23, 1661, 
by a committee consisting of Mr. Thomas Danforth, a noted 
surveyor of early times, Captain Edward Johnson, the his- 
torian, and Ephraim Child, it is said that this territory would 
afford comfortable accommodations for 60 families at least, 
that might subsist by husbandry. When it is stated that 
there are now living, within the original limits of Groton 
Plantation, more than 9,000 inhabitants, it will be seen how 
vain are human predictions and calculations. 

A comparison of the population of the town at different 
periods is somewhat interesting to those familiar with its his- 
tory. John Tinker, in a petition to the General Court, dated 
October, 1659, four years after the incorporation of the town, 
says that the Plantation " Continueth vnpeopled." The 
report of the committee, — of which Thomas Danforth was 
chairman, — dated May 23, 1661, and already quoted, states 
that there were four or five families " planted " at that time. 
In March, 1676, when the town was burned by the Indians, it 
was estimated by the Rev. William Huljbard, in his Narra- 
tive, that there were then 60 families in the place. Another 
writer of that period puts the number of dwellings destroyed 
at i)Q, and says that only 6 houses were left standing. From 
these estimates it would appear that the population of the 
town at the time of its destruction was between 300 and 350 
inhabitants. From March, 1676, until the early spring of 
1678, the settlement was abandoned and entirely deserted. 
In March, 1680, there were 40 families in the town, as appears 
by some statistical returns printed in "The New-England 
Historical and Genealogical Register " (V. 173) for April, 1851. 
In March, 1707-8, there were 67 polls (" Collections of the 
American Statistical Association," p. 146), which would in- 
dicate a population of about 300 persons. At the beginning of 
the year 1755 there were 14 negro slaves in town — seven men 
and seven women — who were sixteen years old or upwards. 

On June 2, 1763, Governor Francis Bernard sent a message 



to the General Court, expressing his wish that a census of the 
Province might be taken ; but that body paid no heed to the 
suggestion. On January 19, 1764, he renewed the proposi- 
tion, and apparently with better success ; for the Legislature, 
on February 2, adopted an order carrying out his wishes. 
The popular heart, however, was not in the work, and no 
interest was taken in the measure. The people were sus- 
picious of the rulers in England, and jealous of all political 
interference ; and it is but natural that the census proceeded 
slowl3\ On March 5, 1765, an Act was passed b}'" the General 
Court to carry into effect an order which had previously been 
passed for numbering the people within the Province. This 
action shows that the Governor's pet scheme was not receiving 
a warm support. 

With these drawbacks, and under such conditions, the first 
census of the houses, families, and number of people in the 
Province of Massachusetts Bay ever taken was finished in the 
year 1765. Singularly enough, there are now no returns of this 
enumeration among the Provincial or State archives, where 
they were undoubtedly placed. How or when they disappeared 
is a matter of conjecture ; but probably they were lost amid 
the confusion that naturally prevailed during the Revolution- 
ary period. Fortunately a copy of this census was found by 
the late Judge Samuel Dana, of Groton, among some papers 
of a deceased friend, which had then lately come into his 
possession ; and by him sent to the " Columbian Centinel " 
newspaper, where it was prijited for the first time in the issue 
of August 17, 1822, more than half a century after the enumera- 
tion was made. From this source is derived all the information 
concerning the figures of the census of 1765 ; and the printed 
copy, in the absence of any other, is an authority second in 
importance only to the original manuscript returns. At that 
time the town of Groton had 1,408 inhabitants. 

In his letter to the editor of the Centinel, Judge Dana 
suggests that the copy — presumably the original document — 



6 

should be sent, after it was printed, to the Antiquarian Society 
for preservation in its library. If he meant by this expression 
the American Antiquarian Society at Worcester, it appears 
not to have been done. Within a few weeks a careful search 
for it has been made by the librarian, but without success ; 
and no record of the missing document is found among the 
accessions of that period. After it had been used as " copy " 
by the printers, it probably was thrown away. 

In the early days of library management, loose manuscripts 
and other papers were not guarded with that care which they 
now receive, and consequently were more liable to loss. I 
mention this fiict, because these missing census returns were 
once probably in the possession of the Historical Society. 
Among some gifts made to this library by the Rev. Dr. James 
Freeman, on April 9, 1791, is a " List of Inhabitants in the 
Province of Massachusetts Bay, in 1764 and 1765" (Proceedings, 
vol. i. p. 8), which does not appear in the Society's Catalogue 
published in the year 1811 ; nor is there now any clew to it. 
The Catalogue of 1796 does not give the separate manuscripts. 
Perhaps this list was taken out from the library by a member 
at some time between the years 1791 and 1811, and never re- 
turned. Subsequently it may have drifted into Judge Dana's 
hands, and thus found its way to the public through the 
columns of the Centinel. 

Akin to this subject, there is in the Society's library a 
memorandum-book of forty-five pages, which contains some 
interesting facts connected directly or indirectly with the 
population of the Commonwealth during the Revolutionary 
period. Mr. Felt, a former librarian, evidently used it in 
preparing an article on the population of Massachusetts, 
which is published in the first volume of the " Collections of 
the American Statistical Association " (Boston, 1817). In 
his paper Mr. Felt gives nearly all the statistics found in the 
book, and speaks of it as " a manuscript of credible author- 
ity" (p. 157), though without mentioning it more specifically. 



The number of white persons within the State in the year 
1776, and the number of polls in 1778 and 1781, as well as 
other statistical items, are also given, though it is not known 
by whom the record was made. According to this authority 
the population of Groton in the year 1776 was 1,639; the 
number of ratable polls in 1778 was 362, and the number in 
1781 was 395. 

In compliance with a resolution of Congress, an Act was 
passed by the General Court of Massachusetts on July 2, 
1784, requiring the assessors of towns to make certain returns, 
from which it appears that there were at that time 418 polls 
in Groton. This was the largest number returned by any 
town in the county, with the single exception of Cambridge, 
which had 457 polls ; and after Groton came Reading with 
399 polls, and Woburn with 395, followed closely by Framing- 
ham with 389. 

At tlie several decennial dates of the United States census 
the population of Groton has been as follows : in the year 
1790,1,840; 1800,1,802; 1810,1,886; 1820,1,897; 1830, 
1,925; 1840,2,139; 1850,2,515; 1860, 3,193; 1870, 3,584; 
and 1880, 1,862. The town of Ayer was incorporated on 
February 14, 1871, and made up almost entirely from the 
territory of Groton, which accounts for the great diminution 
in the population between the last two decennial periods, as 
given above. The new town started on its corporate existence 
with a population nearly equal to that of the parent town, 
and, with all the vigor of youth, soon surpassed it in size. 

The population of Groton, as taken by the State in the 
quinquennial years, has been as follows : in the year 1855, 
2,745 ; 1865, 3,176 ; 1875, 1,908 ; and 1885, 1,987. By all 
the enumerations, National or State, made during the present 
century, it will be seen that there has been a steady increase 
in the population of the town, with the exception of the 
period between the years 1860 and 1865, when there was 
a slight decrease of 17 inhabitants ; and of the period between 



8 

1875 and 1880, when there was a falling off of 46 inhabitants. 
The loss in the first instance was due, of course, to the dis- 
turbing effects of the Civil War. 

The population of Ayer in the year 1885 was 2,190 ; and if 
that village had not been separately incorporated, the popula- 
tion of Groton would now be considerably more than 4,000 
inhabitants. According to the last State census there were 
32 towns or cities in Middlesex County larger than Groton, 
and 21 towns smaller. 

The original Groton Plantation, as granted by the General 
Court on May 25, 1655, has furnished the entire territory of 
Ayer ; the whole of Pepperell, with the exception of a narrow 
strip lying along its northern boundary, which once belonged 
to the West Parish of Dunstable (Hollis) ; the whole of 
Shirley, with the exception of a small portion formerly known 
as " Stow Leg ; " one half of Dunstable ; and has contributed 
more or less to form five other towns, — namely. Harvard, 
Littleton, and Westford (including a part of Forge Village), 
in Massachusetts, besides Nashua and Hollis, in New Hamp- 
shire. The total population of this territory is now between 
9,000 and 10,000 inhabitants. 

SUMMARY. 

Population of Groton at different Times. 

Town incorporated on May 25, 1655; in October, 1659, "vn- 
peopled ; " in May, 1661, four or five families; in March, 1676, about 
300 inhabitants; in March, 1680, forty families; in March, 1708, 67 
polls; in March, 1765, 1,408 inhabitants; in 1776, 1,639 inhabitants; 
in 1778, 362 polls; in 1781, 395 polls ; and in 1784, 418 polls. 

Year. Inhabitants. Year. Inhabitants. 

1790 1,840 1855 2,745 

1800 1,802 1860 3,193 

1810 1,886 1865 .3,176 

1820 1,897 1870 3,584 

1830 1,925 1875 1,908 

1840 2,139 1880 1,862 

1850 2,615 1885 1,987 



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